Wakefield Prison nurse 'attacked' by rapist

Karen Cosford denies having a sexual relationship with an inmate in Wakefield Prison

A prison nurse has told a court she was attacked in a cell by a convicted rapist who threatened to kill her and her family if she told anybody.

Karen Cosford told Leeds Crown Court Brian McBride pushed her on to his bed in Wakefield Prison and raped her.

Mrs Cosford, 47, denies having a sexual relationship with the prisoner and failing to tell authorities he had a mobile phone.

Prosecutors allege she compromised prison security.

Mrs Cosford told the jury she did not report the attack because McBride made a number of threats, including saying he would post secretly recorded images of her on to a pay-per-view website and burn down her house with her family inside.

'Trusted individual'

She first met McBride, who worked as a cleaner at the medical centre in 2004 when she returned to work in the prison after maternity leave.

Mrs Cosford, of Normanton, West Yorkshire, described McBride as "believable" and said she never questioned anything he said.

"The impression I got was he was quite a trusted individual, always pleasant," she said.

After the attack she went home and did not tell her husband, who also worked at the prison, or make a complaint because she said she felt "humiliated" and "violated", she told the court.

Prosecutors said the prison worker had "grossly breached the trust placed in her" and compromised prison security by entering into an "inappropriate relationship" with McBride.

Three of her medical centre colleagues also face various misconduct charges.

Carolyn Falloon, 50, of Wakefield, and Jacqueline Flynn, 46, from Pontefract, deny charges of failing to report the relationship and not reporting McBride's mobile phone.